``This software was developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology by employees of the Federal Government in the course of their official duties. Pursuant to title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code this software is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.
We would appreciate acknowledgement if the software is used.''
This will be the license for all code developed prior to the summer of 1999, after which changes in libelem will be covered by the GNU Library General Public License (LGPL), and the front ends by the GNU General Public License (GPL).